A great variety of devices have been developed to dispense air-treating vapors. Some of such devices are intended to dispense such vapors at a continuous low rate. Others are designed to dispense large amounts of vapors quickly to overcome an undesirable odor. A variety of devices have been developed which are intended to serve both functions. Finally, a number of devices have been developed which are small and/or may be inconspicuously placed to treat the air without cluttering the area.
Of particular concern in the field of air treatment is maintaining a pleasant odor or avoiding unpleasant odors in bathrooms. There has been a need for an improved product which better serves the air-freshening needs of a bathroom environment.
A variety of products have been developed for these purposes, but such products have a number of drawbacks. For example, a toilet paper roll holder carrying a cake of paradichlorobenzene is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,753,209. However, this sort of device does not very well dispense increased amounts of air-treating vapors when such are needed. The rate of vapor dispensing from such devices is substantially constant even while paper is being pulled from rolls mounted on such devices, an action which often occurs when undesirable odors are present.
While such paper roll holders of the prior art are adjustable to accommodate mounting device sockets of varying spacings, they are not adapted to roll freely in a wide variety of such spacings. As will be seen, free rolling of the paper roll holder can increase the outflow of air-treating vapors from air-treating materials contained within the holder, particularly if the contained materials are free to tumble within the holder upon rolling. However, if the holders are too tightly mounted, as is frequently the case with such devices of the prior art, a substantially increased outflow effect will not be possible.
In some other devices of the prior art, paper roll mounts contain air-treating substances in the form of powders or beads or some other material which can move within the device to greatly increase the outflow of air-treating vapors. However, like the device disclosed in the aforementioned patent, such devices have not been designed to accommodate varying spacings between the opposed mounting sockets of wall mounting structures, and thus the devices typically do not turn or do not turn properly on such mounting sockets to allow sufficient movement of the contained air-treating materials. A consistent rolling action and the resulting sufficient internal tumbling movement do not occur reliably when paper is withdrawn from the paper rolls mounted thereon.
A need remains for an improved, inexpensive roll-mounting device which contains an air-treating material and which can serve to dispense air-treating vapors both at a continuous low rate and, when paper is withdrawn from the paper roll mounted thereon, at an increased rate to overcome undesirable odors.